Freefall
by A Devil By Another Name
Summary: Four teams for a distress beacon, overkill doesn't begin to describe it, especially when one team is a ONI tasked Spartan team. It all goes to hell once one little thing goes awry, follow the begrudged allies as the two groups must collaborate to survive
1. Chapter 1

Alright boys girls and others, I'm here again to see what I can do to peak your interest in my writing. I'm AA, if you're following my writing I started and had a block on a RWBY fanfiction writing that followed a team of my own original characters. It ended when I couldn't figure out where to continue, or how I could. I'm going to try seeing what I can do to continue it here soon. For now, I hope this can appease the ones who watch for me, and help get my name out there so I can get more feedback on my work and learn how I can write better. I hope you enjoy and review my writing.

 _I do not own_ _ **Halo**_ _or any rights to the series, this is only a fiction following an idea that a friend of mine had when we we're playing through the series. Depending on how well I can get this to flow this may become more than just a short story, if you'd like to see more or have suggestions feel free to PM myself or review the writing. Thank you for your time, let's finish this fight._

 _Receiving encrypted message…_

 _Message file corrupted…_

 _Preparing cypher programing…_

 _File: Media_Attachment damaged…_

Sender: Redacted

Subject: Immediate pick-up

Status: -file corrupt-

With the minimal staffing of this comms station, two naval officers were on their rotation of one standard day on, one off, the station quiet, sitting on the outside edge of the Epsilon Eridnai system, with Humanity's near annihilation, and with much of the colony worlds glassed or severely radiated from the plasma bombardments of the Covenant that attacked. The junior officer sipped coffee as he read the message, with no details, and the file corrupted he could make no sense of it.

"Major, are you getting this?" Ensign Robert Taylor asked turning from his message center. The Deck officer turned towards the message center, then recieted the message. Tacking to the end, "Sir, how can we reply to a hail for evac without knowing who or where they are?"

The Major swiped his screen to pull up the message. "Triangulate the message origin, There's only three teams we are currently responsible for relaying messages to, and each are in different regions."

"Aye, Sir." Taylor stated while typing in the sequence and expanding his screen to have more viewing area. Within minutes the triangulation process was completed. "Sir, it's being relayed from a communications buoy from the other side of Reach. The signal was sent from out side of the map."

"Out side the map? Are you sure Taylor?" The Major asked, walking briskly to his subordinate's station. Selecting the location of the ping, then redoing the man's triangulation process. The beacon jumped from it's pinging location to their location then back to the planet which was home to the Spartan three projects. Full ONI jurisdiction, not his, but if he were not to act, his collar would be on the line, "Patch the signal to the ONI listening station. This has them written all over it." The Major said backing from the work space. The Ensign resumed his space, following the instruction of his superior.

"What now, sir? What if those guys are in trouble down there?" The man asked.

"It's not our conscern, ONI takes care of ONI business, not the other way around, if ONI want's full UNSC help, they will contact an emergency response team that is in the area."

"Rise and shine boys and girls." The main cryo-technitian stated as he popped the caps of the ODST squad that the Destroyer, _Seasons In The Abyss_ carried as part of her contingent. Being the escort to the ONI stealth cruiser Affirmative _Action,_ the two ships were assigned to assess the distress beacon that had arose from the now abandoned military installation. For now, our job was to get out of the bay then stand by, which usually meant full gear, full load out and ready to move. "Cock, get your fucking team out of my way." A very pissed off Gunney Thompson stated as my two new kids were toddling around as they were supposed to be heading to the showers.

"Hey Mother fuckers! You heard Gunney. Now, move." I said, having a name pronounced the same as a company known for it's cuts of chicken had it's downfalls, like the now official nickname that always had something to do with chickens, weither it was Chicken, Cock, Rooster, or anything else my staff felt like calling me that day. My new guys began to move stumbling while trying to warm up from cryo-sleep.

"Hey Chicken, dibs on first drop." My counter part, the third fireteam leader, Corporal Heather MacAllister said flipping me off.

I shook my head as I headed to the showers to give a rinse of my body before I got into my gear. "What ever you say Mac. I just want a shower and to not have to beat myself with my metal arm to do anything."

"Well get goin' stumpy, can't back up the Spartans with only one arm." She said as she hit the door way. I rolled my eyes and continued into the showers. Stripping before stepping under the stream of water for a few moments, running my one hand through my hair to get it wet instead of have all the water just fall over my head. I stepped from under the water to where my locker was, pulling out a towel and my skivvies before drying off with the towel and beginning to dress, catching up with the rest of my team in their various stages of showering.

I wrapped my towel around my waist and began to the sinks, opting to shave before getting in uniform. One of my juniors, though in just as long, Patt, came to the sink next to me, "Think we're even going to be boots on the ground?"

I shrugged between swipes of the razor, "Honestly we're back up if the Spartans can't handle it, and since this is an ONI operations and handling team, I doubt we'll be on the ground unless something is way out of wack. So I'd say be on stand by with the absolute basics, recon load out." Recon load out for my fireteam meant pack light, weapons, four plus one mag for the main weapon, and two plus one for the side arm."

He gave a nod, he was my point man, the most experienced man on the team besides myself, having five combat campaigns under each of our belts and being from the same training company since ODST training, this was both of our second enlistments, neither of us were going to make this a career, it had already taken a lot from them both, with my arm gone I was surprised they let me re-up after the war, but they were short on ODSTs, especially after the S-IV project opened up to all applicants, especially that of specialist NCOs. I beat the razor against the sink to get the last few hairs that get stuck between the blades out of the spaces before putting away the kit. I moved back to the locker room to get dressed and got myself into my utility trousers before pulling out my calibration tool for my mechanical arm from the duffel bag of bull shit I had. I put the tool to the access port, wiring it in and putting it through the debugging procedure then had it run through recalibration, telling me to think and attempt the actions of moving my forearm, twisting my wrist, clenching and unclenching my fist, then moving my fingers individually.

Once the process was completed, I unplugged the tool, and put it back in my bag. The one bad thing about the permanent prosthetic was the fact that it was prone to damage in cryo, even if it was something just as simple as loosing motor function, it was a time consuming fix.

"Corporal Purdue, where do we go from here?" One of the rookies asked coming up to me.

"Go prep your shit, you have three minutes to have your weapons in your pod and your gear on your body, tell your twin the same. Go." I said using my prosthetic to make a loose fist and open it as I said 'Go'. He took off and I put my combat shirt on, a more breathable version of our utility that was more form fitting, resembling the S-IV's base layer suit's top without all the armor or receptacles over it. I rolled the layer over my prosthetic back over the joint at what would be my elbow, the fabric often caught in the prosthetic, and jammed up the joint, problem with having tech from the fall of Reach was that it was basically built rapidly, and made to get the user back in the fight in weeks instead of months. Currently, there have been many cases of repairs and even full on replacements being required for certain batches that were made from the model of prosthetic that I had on my arm, and now that we humans have space to breathe again, the quality of the gear is jumping up some what.

I walked to the locker with my name on it and reset my bag before gearing up, starting with the vest, clipping into it then setting up the armor for my legs, strapping up the armor after clipping it into the placements in the utilities. I set up my shoulder pads strapping them up after fixing the hook into the slot on the sleeve, then brought the forearm pieces as I walked after the two rookies, really, I just wanted them to not act as dumb as they did, it'd make my job a lot easier, but, it wasn't likely that it'd happen, especially since the kids were about as dumb as dog shit.

My Gunney stopped me, putting his hand out then edging me back before stepping in front of me, "Chicken."

"Yes, Gunney?" I asked, I don't recall having done anything to piss him off before I got to this point besides my two juniors making asses out of themselves.

"I'm having a meeting in the smoke pit in ten minutes between my fireteam leaders, I already told Mac, I haven't seen Cole, let him know if you see him." He said before tapping my chest plate with his fist and walking off.

"Aye Gunney." I said making my way to the armory to get my weapons, the standard issue battle rifle, a silenced pistol and my fail-safe, an eight gauge short barreled shot gun with a foldable stock that would sit on the side of my pack if there was an absolute emergency, or a door that needed blown off the hinges. Picking up my rifle, I pulled my add-ons from my cargo pocket and placed the foregrip on the lower rail, added my tac-light to the side of the barrel on what was my outside with the on switch to the light going where my thumb could touch on the fire arm, up by the foregrip. I checked the add-ons for tightness and went through the functions check, being sure that everything worked as it was supposed to. When it did I set it down on the table to check my pistol, checking the silencer to be sure it was fixed to the muzzle before going through my functions check and placing it in my drop holster that was on my mid thigh at my dominant side. I picked up my rifle carrying it with the muzzle pointed between my feet as I walked to my pod.

The two boots were finishing their gear tabs as I came up. I checked the watch on my wrist, it was sitting five minutes later than it had been when I told them that they had three minutes. "So you both want to say fuck me and waste my time?" I asked as I came up to them in a slightly surprised voice.

"No Corporal." They both chimed, standing themselves up, waiting for me to further berate them. I put my rifle in the pod before placing my helmet on the seat.

"Both of you, go figure out where Sergeant Cole is, tell him Gunney want's all fireteam leaders in the smoke pit at..." I looked at my watch, "1355."

They gave their own respective nods before taking off. I made my way to the pit, pulling the pack from my hard case on my thigh with my disposable lighter inside the half used pack. Once I got there I pulled one out, and lit it. I stood by the butt can that was more a pole with slits in the side that held a filtration vent over the area so that the smoke would be filtered and removed from the equation. I saw the other two fire team leaders come up and then Gunney, who sat on the bench in the small area, "Alright, lets get this over with, everyone have their counts?"

Cole read off his numbers and then Mac did the same, with me at the end. Gunney nodded, "Alright, now, Spartan team Janus has begun their approach to the target, current reports are that they are en route to the beacon on the outside of the city of Casbah, currently they are eight mikes from the location of the beacon. Only information they are giving us about the beacon is that it was an ONI recon team's signal. With the amount of time that's gone by, I'm doubting there are going to be any survivors there, it's been three days, and with the insurrectionists and covenant loyalists surging back into prominence, we're probably going to see hard contact from the Spartan team, they asked for us to be a panic button to help get heat off of them instead of go in with them and fan out from there."

He took a puff of his cigarette and exhaled the smoke, "Now, that being said, each one of you know what you're doing, the only team I'm worried about is Purdue's with two new guys, I'm not sure how well they'll do."

"We've been hitting them hard with training Gunney, they're green, but their ready." I replied

He nodded, "Having each other team with one rookie, they should all be well off with experience. Anyways, the assignment's I have for each of you are simple as of now, I'll update details as I get them, but Cole, your team is going to be dropped in advance of the Spartan team when they call. MacAllister, your team is going to be on overwatch in a Falcon that will be flying in support of a Pelican flying in for evac and medical pick up. Purdue, your team is going to be direct support to the Spartan team, dropping in danger close to them when ever they call."

I gave a nod and puffed on my cigarette, the other two nodded, Mac asked, "Any special load outs you want our teams having?"

Gunney was caught in the middle of a puff, he exhaled quickly, "Your choices, I honestly don't give a damn, we have limited support, the Cruiser we're up here with isn't equipped for a sustained ground fight, and this destroyer can't sustain ground fights for long either, there's less than a company of marines on this old bitch and enough trucks to move a platoon and that's it."

I gave a nod and finished my cigarette, scraping the butt against the mesh of the can's inlet before dropping the now cherry-less butt in the can. Gunney did the same before saying, "After you get your teams ready, Mac, go to the hangar, the bird taking you down is called "Cigar boat", Cole and Purdue, your teams are going in the launch bay. Go." I gave a nod and the others gave their own recognitions.

I headed to the armory and pulled what I thought my team may need, my new guy, Alphabet was our team's EOD tech, Patt and I were riflemen, with myself being cross trained with Corpsmen, and the other new one, the one girl on the team, who hadn't got a name from the team yet Smith, was our team's automatic rifleman. I returned with the weapon bags and handed them off to the two new guys, "Alphabet, you're getting the grenade launcher, Smith, you're trading up, get rid of the rifle, you have a SAW. Patt, you still know what you're doing with a marksman rifle?"

Patt gave a smirk, "Better than you know your way around a med bag." He said taking the rifle from my hands, trading up his battle rifle for the more accurate DMR. The other two did the same, following the lead of their, more experienced team mate. I checked over my gear, sorting through the inventory of mags, realizing I said recon load, not combat load, I cursed myself and pinged up the message to Patt on the short wave chat that was on my wrist, giving three bursts of vibration to it, one meant disarm, two meant recon load, three meant combat load. I checked my personal medical bag that would sling on the outside of my hard pack to be sure I had everything necessary for medical practice, a couple of bags of iodine tablets, eight canisters of bio-foam, gauze sheets, tape, and multiple doses of a mild sedative to relieve pain.

Patt and the two others came back with their new weapons and with the ammunition for them. I secured my pack to the pod and went to update my ammunition count. I headed to the armory and as I got the additional rounds in forms of mags and bags, the alarm went off, and I heard the Gunney's voice, "Teams one and three, get your asses in the pods, drop in two mikes!"

I cussed to myself and ran the way back to my pod, putting my mags in the pouches that my vest had while moving. I dropped my shotgun shells in the cargo piece to the top of my chest armor before getting to my team. Patt was already checking the new ones' straps and everything by the time I got there, I slid the last of my ammo in place while climbing into the pod. "Patt, strap in, less than a minute on that timer."

Patt nodded and moved, sliding in the pod to my left. I pulled my helmet up and strapped myself into my pack and the pod, "Everyone check in."

"Smith here." Smith stated first.

"Alfonse-Romera here." Alphabet responded moments later.

"Patterson here." Patt said.

"Good, team three is up." I said as I clicked on the green light for my team's status indicator. As I did so, Gunney came by, checking last minute on my team.

"Chicken, the situation downstairs has gone to shit, as of right now, Janus is on their target location, but came into an ambush, they have one WIA, and currently are calling for air support, MacAllister is riding down now as we speak, but the two drop teams are the ones that are going to be there first, get them covered, get the area clear, and move, bridge posted an alert that there's a hostile battle group inbound. Get down there, and get back as soon as possible."

I gave a nod, "We're your team Gunney." I said as the pod began to automatically close before pulling itself to the racking position. "As soon as we hop out, be sure you stay with the rest of the team, this is a combat drop, this isn't training anymore." I said mostly to our new guys. I got clicks of acknowledgment as the racks were set. I gave my breathing count as my pod stopped, it took one full inhale, and one good deep exhale before being launched. I inhaled slowly and fully, exhaling just as much, the launch caught me just as my lungs were about to empty, knocking the last bit from my chest as I went into an aided free fall. I watched as the hull gave way to space, and the planet, over a hundred total jumps, and it never failed to captivate me to see the planet, seeing it from upper atmosphere as it rapidly drew me to it's surface.

I felt the jolt as the drag chute opened for the pod, watching as the cloud cover took my view then left, just a few seconds more, then I'd feel the sharp jolt of the ground as impact occurred, the boosters fired to slow the pod down to protect the person inside from being a part of a crumpled can if someone were to hit the ground at terminal velocity.

The jolt came and I pulled out my rifle, waiting the moment before my door would pop.


	2. Chapter 2

_I do not own_ _ **Halo**_ _or any rights to the series, this is only a fiction following an idea that a friend of mine had when we we're playing through the series. Depending on how well I can get this to flow this may become more than just a short story, if you'd like to see more or have suggestions feel free to PM myself or review the writing. Thank you for your time, let's finish this fight._

As the door popped I jolted out of my pod lifting my rifle and stepping out onto the scene. Searching as I moved, as I did so I came to notice that my hearing was gone, replaced by ringing and my ragged breath, everything else was vivid, the colors, the stray pots of soil and grass popping up off the ground. I took in a deep breath as I continued to search, the area, constantly moving low. I checked my HUD for the waypoint for the Spartan team as I moved from the impact spot of my pod to the edge of the knoll. I heard Patt call out, "Three o'clock, eight hostiles."

"Alphabet, Smith, lay down cover, I'm going to Janus. Patt, spot the others up." The team quickly moved and I heard the bark of Smith's SAW as she laid out bursts to quell the fire. I ran low and threw myself over the knoll that separated myself from the Spartans. I dropped on my side and moved over. One of the Spartans raised a pistol at me, I held up my hands, and stated, "Corporal Purdue, Carter, ODST, one oh fifth, eighth platoon third squad second fireteam leader, call sign Chicken."

The Spartan dropped his pistol down, "Spartan fireteam commander Marcus Johnson, we have one in critical."

"I've got him, we have a casevac coming now." I stated while pulling off my pack and heading to the wounded Spartan. He was wreathing with a bullet wound to his chest between the plates and his left leg was blown apart, armor gone, his under suit blown apart. I ripped through the bag pulling out the first bio-foam container, pushing the nozzle into the bullet wound to close it up, he gave a shout before breathing easy. I moved to his leg, putting burn meds on the man's legs to keep them from being infected. "What the hell happened?"

"We have Insurrectionists fighting us." Johnson said, "They're a lot better trained than reports indicated, we're still eight clicks from where the beacon went dark."

"The beacon went dark?" I asked.

"As soon as our bird touched down."

"Shit." I put my hand to my ear, "Patt, I need you three over here, we've got bad news, and we need to get this guy out of here."

"We're pinned, as soon as you hopped over we started getting lit up with small arms fire, Smith can't supress them with her one gun."

"Johnson, does your team have a gunner? My guys are pinned down in the ditch on the other side of that knoll."

"On it." He said as he looked to one of the other Spartans, the man nodded and pulled up his heavier gun, lifting it over the rise before opening up, the other two Spartans opened up and began the cover fire.

"Go, go now." I said into my mic for my team. I switched frequencies to the squad channel, "Mac, Purdue here, what's your ETA?"

"We're in low atmosphere now, pilot says three mikes. Shit, are you all taking hard contact?"

"We have hard contact a hundred or so meters out in a tree line."

"We'll light 'em up when we see em." She replied, "Cole will get the information as soon as he gets online." She stated then static came up as the third line came open.

"No good, we're pinned down, we dropped in the middle of a fucking ambush, as soon as you pull that wounded man, we need-" The transmission cut to static and I cussed to myself attempting to switch frequencies to the back up channel.

I saw Patt come up to me while half backpettling, and half side shuffling to me, while one handing his rifle up the slope. He put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me close, shouting, "They just opened up a jammer frequency."

I cussed to myself and moved him and myself up to the edge of the knoll. Smith was reloading her SAW. I started laying out rounds at what I could see for muzzle flashes. I heard a whistle coming from overhead, I shouted, "Get down!" as the blast impacted to our rear by about twenty five meters.

"They have us dialed in, we need to move, now." I said to the Spartan team leader.

He gave a nod and relayed the information to his team. They began moving, one of them fireman carrying their wounded man while they both drew their side arms, the rest of their team formed up on them and began moving. My team laid down cover as they moved to their new spot. Dropping the wounded man to the ground.

"Smith, you and Alphabet are going first, meet with the Spartans and then ten seconds later, open up so Patt and I can cross." I said, the two nodded and I looked to Patt with a nod, then shouted, "Go!" as I flipped my selector from single to full auto, firing off bursts to drop their heads. The two ran for it, Smith slowing to let off fire from her SAW quickly to remove fire from them when possible.

They got down, and I counted to myself as I fired off a couple more shots, once I hit eight I heard the SAW open back up with the other guns of the now mixed team going off. Patt rolled himself across my back and began off. I followed just a little bit at his heels.

I heard more whistling as another set of shells were coming, the two impacts hitting just behind where we were holed up. I kept moving, trading places with Patt every few meters laying out cover for each other.

Patt jumped into the creek bed and I slid in after him. "We're all but pinned and have no way to communicate with support. We need to move." Johnson stated.

"Support is less than one Mike out, we can't move much further, I'm popping smoke to mark our position for the rest of our guys." I said pulling a yellow smoke canister out. The Spartan gripped my wrist to stop me.

Patt pulled his rifle up to the Spartan, "Bad idea tin man. Those two birds need our location." He said and the Spartan yielded and I tossed the canister, yellow smoke spilling out as it rolled to a stop.

I heard the spit from the guns of the birds before I saw them through the smoke, the plots of dirt kicking up as the main guns of both birds came alive, as the door guns opened up from the Falcon. The pelican let loose it's load of rockets as it hovered over our position. The falcon circled the area as the main gun was going live, and the door gunners alternated shots as they became clear. The pelican lowered down and the crew chief of the bird stepped off, "Load 'em up."

The Spartan team was already on it, taking their comrade onto the bird. We held firing to help the Falcon weedwack hostiles. I watched flashes as vapor trails errupted from the trees the bird banked hard and dropped low, it wrenched my gut just watching. As the bird began to lift back up I saw another trail streak straight for it, scoring a hit, smacking the belly of the bird, I heard a heavy thud as the warhead impacted, not going off. I pointed alphabet at the spot the trails kept coming from, he fired and I watched for an impact as he broke the chamber open, replacing the spent round with a fresh shell. The round hit low and I said, "Up your aim, thirty meters."

He did as I said and fired again, watching the round impact in the trees. I got my eyes back the bird, they leveled it off and I heard the Pelican throttle up as the Spartan team seated themselves. I looked back and pointed to the bird for my guys and yelled, "Lets go!" The crew chief cut me off crossing his hand over his neck as the bird lifted.

"What the fuck? Where are they going?" Smith asked between barks of fire.

I shook my head, "I don't know. Hold tight, and they should come back, first team is pinned hard."

Patt shook his head, "We need to take the damn jammer out, we're stuck here if we can't get our signal out."

I gave a nod, "We have to find it first, but you're right. Let's go, this is probably our only chance."

My three team mates came up and we took off, with the bird moving towards the ship we dropped from just minutes prior. I lead them forward towards the tree line, moving quickly and quietly before we immersed ourselves in the trees. I stopped them when we came into the shadow of the trees, pulling the silencer from my bag, I threaded it onto the muzzle of my rifle. The rest of the team followed suit, Smith pulling out her side arm, Alphabet screwed the silencer onto his assault rifle.

I looked back to my team then said, "We're going in quiet, that jammer needs to be found. Patt, take Smith and head in, Alphabet and I will peel left off you two once we get clear of the patrols, that number of men, there's got to be a camp somewhere near by. We're going to move parallel to you both. If you find something blink your tac-lite at us in intervals of three. We will do the same, watch for the light, be sure it's in IR, we don't want the insurrectionists to find out where we are."

Patt nodded and put a fresh mag in his rifle. "They can't be far off, we aren't exactly invisible."

"Good point, let's move." I said starting off in a light trot, holding my rifle up in the ready.

I waved Alphabet forward and we peeled off from Patt and Smith, I'd feel better with having my long time teammate at my side, but, I couldn't have two wet behind the ears guys who'd only done training missions until now be on the same two man team. Hell, I'd be signing their death warrant.

Alphabet came closer and asked just loud enough that I could here, "Are we going to go after Sergeant Cole and his team after we get the jammer off line?"

I gave a nod, "I can't leave any one of my squad mates here, I won't let what happened in Africa happen again. Cole, Mac, Patt and I were in the same fireteam back then, this was when I was still a lance, and before Patt got NJPed. Our sister team got stuck, and our mission was to guard the civilians that were evacuating Cairo. They got slaughtered because our squad leader thought it was better to let one team go, than to halt our convoy and pick them up."

I mentally imagined him giving a sigh, Alphabet replied a moment later, "We won't do that."

"We won't" I affirmed, moving forward before cutting following the line that Patt and Smith would be taking, glancing over as we moved watching for their signal while still keeping an eye out for where I was going.

Stepping over roots and stumps as well as clumps of glassed earth, I could tell better now about how this planet fared in the fight against the Covenant, we lost it in the war, but thankfully, they only partially glassed the planet. The area here hadn't been glassed, but the plasma burns from larger blasts of their weapons scared the landscape here and there. We came up to a ridge with a ten or so meter drop, I paused and scanned the area, listening as well as watching, my radio may be down, but my HUD could still operate, watching the minimap and the tactical display of my inventory. I motioned for him to go down. He gave a nod and did so, I slid down after he landed and picked up a stance covering for me.

I tapped his shoulder and lead on, with one team on the line with the full need for the jammer to be down, and the possibility of at least standard military trained hostiles in the area, I couldn't let time be wasted any more than necessary. I switched my VISR on as it became dark, letting the modified night vision help me locate my path and possibly the outpost. My waypoint for the Spartans was still active, though reading at at least a kilometer back, that gave me a good estimate of how far I've gone. With some luck, I saw the IR signal light that came from the other pair to my fireteam. I pointed it out and began to move to it. Scanning periodically to be sure I wouldn't walk into an enemy patrol.

The signal light kept coming, so I continued to follow it. As we came up I gave a soft bird like call to let Patt know I was coming and that I wasn't a hostile. I stepped forward towards the light and found the two of them, "Good to know the entire team is still in one piece."

"We found it, Smith actually spotted it through the trees, I'm guessing about three hundred meters to the west." He said pointing it out. I gave a nod, and looked to the spot, Patt continued what he had to say, "While Smith was signaling you two, I was watching for activity, and I noticed patrolling pairs, making a round roughly five minutes apart."

"Two gunmen on patrols. Hopefully these guys think it's just routine work, otherwise we might be in for a lot more than just a little more than just a couple patrolling men." I said giving a nod. "To keep this as simple and hopefully as easy as possible, Smith, Alphabet with me, Patt, I'm going to put you up high to keep an eye on us. You know my drill, if they look like they're coming for us, hit them. Smith, Alphabet, we're going to go forward, and I'm going to stop you about thirty meters back to give me close support if I need it. I'll plant a charge on the jammer and after we regress back here, we'll go after sergeant Cole's team."

Patt nodded and began climbing. I pulled my rifle up to my shoulder and nodded to the two. I turned to the jammer and started off towards it, checking my steps and the area around me, reminding myself that this wasn't the Covenant I was fighting, if these guys knew what they were doing, it could be a bad day. If the day could get any worse, then taking a trip mine to the leg would make it much worse.

I stopped close to the trailer mounted jammer and pointed to my right to tell one of them to take position there. I peeled left before stopping again thirty meters from where I set the first. I pointed to my right to get the last position set up. I doubled back and made my way forward to the edge of the small clearing that the jammer equipment sat in. I watched and waited until the pair of patrolling insurrectionists passed where I was stopped. As they passed me I watched until they passed the jammer, watching for where they would walk before I made my move.

I glided low over the grass and low brush that adorned the clearing before stopping and kneeling at the jammer. I set my rifle against the tire, and begun my process to disable the hindrance to my and my squad's safe passage back into orbit. I checked the panel, noting that there was a main power that I could manually pull, but how long would that last us? I doubted that it'd pass a walk around if the pair were thorough in their route. I gave a slight heave and reached around to my weak side and pulled out a small shape charge from the side of my pack, setting it for timed detonation, setting the timer for five minutes. I checked the body of the jammer again before deciding my best bet on placement. I glanced around myself before lowering myself to place the charge under the frame and on the utility box that held the body of the jammer pressing the button to begin as the timer in my HUD responded by marking my time just under my compass and vital readings.

I slid out from under the trailer and stopped in my tracks. Shit, how were the pair already back? I cussed to myself and drew my pistol, laying my hand with the pistol over my chest as I watched their approach, luckily for me, I thought of depolarizing my visor, removing the light blue reflective glass of the ODST visor. Taking mental note to request the non-reflective visor options that had become available after the war.

As they came closer I heard their conversation take place.

"-that amount of gunfire to just stop like that, do you think our guys took out that spook team?" The first asked.

"How the hell should I know Mark? And it wasn't spooks, it was a Spartan team. From the amount of fire, it sounded like they were fighting for their lives."

"Don't think the Spartans broke through?"

"If they did, we wouldn't hear a quick drop off of fire, it would have been a lot slower, with a few shots still coming out." The second man, the nameless one sounded like he knew how Spartans operated, possibly storries that drifted, or maybe he was a turn coat from the war. I kept still to see if I could get any more information from just listening in on the two's conversation.

"Still, don't you think they want the others and the equipment that they lost from that recon team we took out earlier this week?" Recon team? What was an ONI recon team doing here? Was there some sort of tech that they needed here? Why the hell was ONI always involved when it came to something that was overly dangerous and possibly going to take the lives of several, if not many good men and women that pledged a blank check of up to and including their lives in service of humanity and it's preservation?

"It's ONI, I'm surprised that they haven't dropped a bomb on us."

"Do you see that?" Shit

"What? Wait..." No, you don't see me… you don't see me…

My mental words had no value, as I turned my eyes to avoid movement to see the two bring their rifles up in an alert carry, I slowly slid my hand over to ready a rapid aim and fire situation, using my thumb to slowly flick the safety off. Shit, where the hell was Patt's shot? I calculated my move as I slowly took a breath, if Patt didn't shoot, it meant he either didn't have a clear shot, or that he couldn't shoot and was about to be compromised.

The two took a step closer and I exhaled slowly before raising my pistol and leveling the sights in one quick and practiced motion, lifting my off hand as my arm readied for the shot before firing at the first of the two, and adjusting quickly before taking my second shot at the number two. They dropped with two thuds. I exhaled the rest of my breath, sighing and letting myself take a moment before getting up. I pulled my rifle and used my hand to call on my team to rally at the spot we had made previously.

I moved quickly to the bodies and picked up the comm gear from one of the dead men, connecting it to the comm unit on my gear. I set it together and got moving, my HUD cyphering the communications channel and patching my comms unit into it. As the status bar continued its pass over the corner of my HUD I moved from the tree line to our meeting point. Patt and Smith were both there already, Alphabet I saw on my scanner being just a few meters out. I watched my count down and heard Patt say, "And here comes the boom" as he said it, my timer went from ten, counting down the last few seconds before detonation. Upon hitting zero, I saw the charge go off before I heard it, the jammer going up in a ball of flame and debris when I heard the boom.

"Sounds like we're back in business boys and girls." I said before attempting my call on our squad's channel, "Any station, any station, this is Fox three, does anyone read me?"


	3. Chapter 3

_I do not own_ _ **Halo**_ _or any rights to the series, this is only a fiction following an idea that a friend of mine had when we we're playing through the series._ _Much of the characters are of personal acquaintances from around my work place and friends of mine from back home. I hope you enjoy and let's add another chapter to the cycle for the second coming of war in the universe of Halo._

The seconds ticked by in my head as I waited for a response. Just as I was about to attempt again, I heard, "Fox one hears you Fox three, I've got one wounded, one dead." Someone said, it wasn't Cole, was he the one dead? It wasn't unheard of, but this wasn't what I had in mind for my guys when it came to a quick drop and retreat.

"What's your location?"

"about a click and a half south west from drop location."

"Stay put, we're on our way, activate waypoint beacon for squad HUD"

Even if this was one of Cole's new guys, they'd know the ins and outs of their HUD functions, so they could set it if need be.

My waypoint moved and read at nearly a one and a quarter click to my east and north.

"Done, what's your ETA?"

"Five minutes max." I stated and began moving, "Lets move guys." I said in the mic to my team.

As I finished speaking I heard the higher pitched voice of Mac, "Purdue? Shit, everyone went dark for a while, and we got pulled into a holding pattern since I wouldn't let the pilot leave you guys down there."

"Mac?" I asked to confirm I wasn't hearing things

"Who else?"

"Shit, do you know why the Spartans took off without us?"

"No, but they have been set in a new drop point, putting them closer to their objective. Apparently the beacon was only a distraction, the objective is further north of Cole's crew."

"Good, I'd hate to see us be the only ones to actually do something here."

"Purdue, calm down."

"I will after I tend to the rest of the squad, two down on Cole's team."

"Shit, I'll get a Medevac on the way."

I gave a click to confirm, as my team and I continued to the waypoint team one made for us to get there. Continuing on, we skirted along the clearing following the straightest way we could, "Stay out of the open, I don't want to walk up on another patrol."

I opened up the team so we could have a better chance of not being spotted as a whole. Moving in a diamond Esq formation, with Patt in the lead, the two new ones on the left and right, and myself between the two and back ever so slightly. We came closer and were hearing shots, moderately frequent coming from ahead.

"Fox three, this is Fox one, we're taking heavy fire, we need to move." I heard the frantic voice of the man who came on earlier.

"Fox three here, we're half a click out and heading your way, draw them west, we'll take the rest from there." I said giving the signal to pick up the speed.

"Fox one, Fox two inbound hot with your support. Watch your heads."

Mac said the last bit before I heard the bird streak in overhead, the rotor blades washing the ground with leaves, sticks and wind. I heard the buzz of it's three guns opening up, as well as the guns the passengers were using. "Let's go kiddos, we're missing the party."

I said as Patt gave the signal that he spotted them. "Fifteen hostiles, all front."

"close dispersion, Patt, I'm coming up to you." I said as I picked up my own speed. Smith and Alphabet closed in to our sides. "let's ease the pressure. Go."

As I gave the order, in a broken unison the four of us moved forward, opening fire on the militants. The ones immediately to our front began to fall, the first three in rapid succession with more going down as we advanced. As we seemed to have got a foothold in the line for our squadmates, I pointed Smith and Patt to our right, to keep pressure off of the team behind us.

"Get your asses up here, we have you covered." I said into the receiver.

One of the ODSTs looked to us before waving the rest of his team over our way. I glanced to him before checking off his armor as one of the guys who was a new ODST, Petreovitch, but had been apart of the corps during the war. He stood hauling the body of Cole, it was as I feared, the insane mother fucker I knew since the beginning was now gone, having survived the war, he died in a time of "peace". The ODST carrying him then turned to engage in the firefight to help his team get up. The one other standing man hauled the wounded man over his back into a fireman's carry, the wounded man lay mostly still, with low energy movements happening from him, barely putting his hand at the other ODST's back.

I gave the signal for my team to continue the advance while the others were coming our way. The one carrying the wounded man, that I could now see his tag on his chest identifying him as Walker, our lance that had been on a couple drops with our team, came up first and set his man down, I looked to him and asked, "What's he got?"

"Gun shot wound, right flank." He said as he began putting pressure on the wounded man's side.

I smacked Patt's arm saying I was peeling off, then said, "Take my place" Walker nodded and peeled off putting his rifle on the firing line. I hooked my rifle on my back and checked my squadmate, looking for an exit wound. The exit wound came out at an angle from the entry, to his outside. I looked to him, "You'll be alright Yao" I said while reading his chest plate. I continued with the statement saying, "the bullet missed anything vital, you just took one hell of a stinger." I took out the bio-foam canister from my easy access kit on the side of my bag. Putting the nozzle to the entry wound. "This is going to hurt." He gave a nod and I activated it, hearing him shout from the inside of his helmet as his head fell back. I pulled the canister out and discarded it after using it up. He quickly came about himself and breathed easier.

I hauled him to his feet, "Stay at my ass, we're going to get you and Cole out of here."

"All due respect corporal, but I'm staying with my squad, I'm not out of this yet." Yao said slightly labored.

"You're not getting an easy ticket, we're all going to get out of here ASAP." I said before Petreovitch got Cole's body back to us. "Vitch, We need you to fireman carry him, We're backing off to the clearing." He nodded before picking the lifeless body and bloody armor off the ground. I put my hand to my ear, "Any Station, Any Station, this is Marlbro Two, does anyone copy?"

"Marlbro Two, this is Slavedriver, we hear you loud and clear." I heard on the channel, the Gunney answering the hail for contact.

"Slavedriver, Marlbro one is at half capacity, one Kilo, one walking Whiskey. How copy?" I said indicating we had one killed in action and a second wounded, but walking. I flinched as I heard the snap of a bullet fly passed my head, I returned fire with a quick burst of semiautomatic fire.

"Read you loud and clear Marlbro two. We're sending out a Medevac for your casualties. Pop smoke on location for drop point, ETA, five mikes." Gunney replied.

"Copy that Slavedriver, Marlbro two out." I said before switching channels to my squad's channel, "Patt, you take Yao and start making it back to the drop point, we need to get there post haste. Walker, Vitch, give him cover. Smith, Alphabet, you're on me." I said, and the five others began doing as they were told. Patt lifted Yao to his feet before putting him in a fireman's carry while the two from Cole's team held suppressing fire for him. I did the same for Cole while my two did the same, "Walker, take charge of the bounding, everyone is coming back."

"You got it Corporal." Walker said to me before stating, "Smith, drop back, call out once you set."

I started trotting at Patt's side, drawing my side arm. "How you two holdin up?"

"Fuck you Purdue." Patt said before saying, "Yao, two right." Yao popped up his sub-machine gun, leveling in a quick aim before firing a burst then another, receiving some fire back.

Patt lifted his side arm and began to return fire. I leveled my own pistol and fired rounds at the muzzle flashes in front of us. "Reloading!" Yao called out as he dropped the SMG to his hip using his quick release to load the mag into his pistol. He pulled the fire arm up and began firing again.

The fire intensified and I ducked down lowering Cole while I knelt, Patt dropped down with Yao, I put my hand to my ear, "Walker, where are you guys? We're getting pinned over here."

Walker came over. "We've got an issue, we're taking heavy fire too."

"Son of a bitch, hunker down." I said before selecting channels and hailing Slavedriver, "Slavedriver, Marlbro two here, Both ground elements immobile, be advised, hard contact held by both ground elements, requesting immediate air support."

"Marlbro two, this is Osiris, that's a negative on air support, ground air defense has been ramped up, I advise you move three clicks east, Extract point moving to lapse in air defense grid."

"Negative, we won't make it to the extract, both Marlbro ground elements are pinned down."

"Patt, down!" I shouted as I saw the vapor trail from in front of us.

I dropped and swapped to my battle rifle, firing in rapid succession.

Patt started up, pulling a phosphorous grenade from his belt. "Fire in the hole!" He said as he lobbed it, dropping to his face.

"Say again Marlbro two" Osiris said as I reloaded.

"Marlbro can not continue, all ground elements pinned down." I said before ducking my head after a round wizzed by.

"We can give orbital fire support, but it's limited support we can give, we have incoming hostile vessels." Osiris stated. "We'll start our bombardment in three mikes, get your team together and broadcast your location."

I dropped lower before firing off another burst, then swapping my channel I called out to the rest of our ground element, "Walker, you've got three mikes, get to me and Patt, there's going to be a hell of a fireworks show."

"Got it, we're on our way." He said through the hail of bullets and explosions that I heard from his microphone.

"Just get over here, we'll all die together." I said in regards to knowing exactly who was on the horn. I glanced over to Patt and he was setting up his defensive position to hold tight.

I started to see my squad's tags on my motion tracker and move slowly back to my position. As they came up they formed up into the loose defensive grid, keeping enough space between each other. I started broadcasting our signal I saw a green light flicker on my display and I called out, "Everybody down!"

I heard the shells shriek before I dropped to my chest, the impacts of the shells lifted and jarred my body against the ground, and I just prayed to myself that my squad was going to be still there after the earth shattering barrage of depleted uranium, lead and copper was finished. As the bombardment ended I picked up my head up, looking around with my ears ringing deftly. My sight came back with my equilibrium. My visor was spider webbing with hundreds of cracks and fractures throughout the polarized face mask.

Once I heard something beyond ringing and my heartbeat I called out, "How is everyone?" I waited a second then called out again. Nothing, I drug myself up and began looking around, not able to see much through the dust and debris kicked into the air by the shelling.


	4. Chapter 3,5

Low atmosphere, Aboard _Seasons In The Abyss_

Gunnery sergeant Thompson stood at the ground communications center watching as his squad of ODST specialists regressed back to the primary drop point, listening to the only NCO on the ground request for immediate CASEVAC for two of the troopers he was responsible for. He looked to the Naval Inteligence officer who was standing by on his tablet, poking away with something on the screen. He took off his headset then stated, "Sir, with all due respect, this is a fucking shit show. My boys are down there getting their asses kicked while your team is back on the Action."

Naval intelligence looked to the ODST vet standing before him in his work utilities, then smirked, "Thompson, you don't need to worry yourself about my team. In fact, I'd be more worried about what they just found. There is a good sized stockpile of weapons and tech that my team doesn't have the demolitions capacity to take out. You're squad is getting re-routed there after they get their wounded off the ground."

Thompson glared at the man, "Tin man can't do it so you're going to send in the real fighters?"

"If I wanted to do that, I'd call in something else. Then nothing would leave that planet alive." The ONI rep said before looking to the command center, "But, since your squad is taking much of the heat for my recovery team, once the objective is secured, you'll receive Janus' second element as assistance."

"Second element? Why not have your team fully devoted to getting everyone off that rock?" Thompson asked, "Or is your Spartan team already spent and need a break from the action?"

The ONI rep chuckled, " If you knew what these boys were, you'd see why I'm doing you a solid by giving you Element Two."

" _Slavedriver, Marlbro Two here, both ground elements immobile, be advised, hard contact held by both ground elements, requesting immediate air support._ " The command center called out as the ground element hailed for support. The ONI representative shook his head then pressed the headset to his ears.

"Marlbro Two, this is Osiris, that's a negative on air support, ground air defense has been ramped up, I advise you move three clicks to the east, Extract moving to lapse in air defense grid." He said in response. Thompson glared at the ONI rep for his response, they called a specific callsign, not an open request. He let it go due to the Rep's rank was equivalent to a Capitan in the marines.

" _Negative- ...it to the extract, both-... ground elements-..._ " Purdue replied through the channel, static and the pop/snap of rounds being fired going by the receiver cut off his words

"Say again Marlbro Two." The ONI rep stated while checking the location of the squad while he waited for the response.

" _Marlbro can not continue, all ground elements are pinned down._ " He replied slower and more concisely.

The ONI rep looked to his tablet before setting it on the holographic projector, looking at the report from the observation deck. Multiple frigate class ships were cruising in. "Son of a bitch" he tapped the systems check to see what was available before tapping the channel open, "We can give orbital fire support, but it's limited support we can give, we have incoming hostile vessels. We will start our bombardment in three mikes, get your team together and broadcast your location." He said before giving a sigh, "Osiris out."

Thompson looked to the representative before saying, "What the fuck is going on down there?"

"Honestly, your boys stirred up the hornets nest. Our Intel shows that there should be a company sized element, but with what we are receiving, and what our current situation is showing us, it's obvious that we walked in with our pants down. Current assesment puts them as a division sized element with orbital support." The rep stated making commands and populating them on the command console.

"You're telling me we have a squad on the ground and they have a division or better sized element with orbital assets. We need to drop immediate reinforcements and get my wounded out of there." Thompson said.

"Honestly Gunney, we don't have assets to repel that kind of force, with three frigates incoming, with a squadron or so of fighter bombers, we can't risk dropping anything beyond drop pods for resources."

"So Even trying to get a MEDEVAC for the wounded is going to be a stretch." Thompson said before shaking his head.

"Gunney, check the screen." One of the communications specialists said as the screen came alive with a satellite feed of the battlefield, showing the squad of ODSTs on the ground, broken up in two groups, one slowly making it's way to the other. As everything on the screen came to life, the tactical feeds from the troopers' helmet uplinks began to fill showing the first person view from each of their visors, with one displaying vitals and damage assesment, and another reading KIA.

"Jesus Christ... I need a thermal reading of the area." Thompson stated while it filled with the dots to show where heat signatures of the area popped up, with clusters of red around the dots of the ODSTs, "How the hell did we not get Intel about all this?"

The ONI rep looked to the command console then tapped his hand to his ear, "Element Two, prep for immediate drop, two mikes." He said as he got the ODSTs position filed down, giving the angles and safe impact locations. "Gun deck, this is Osiris, go for fire mission."

"Osiris, gun deck, fire mission complete, stand in by for report." The intercom spoke back after a moment of silence.

Thompson watched the screen as two of the feeds went static before pulling on his headset, "Marlbro, this is Slavedriver, status." After several seconds he repeated himself, "Marlbro Two, this is Slavedriver, respond."


	5. Chapter 4

I do not own Halo or any rights to the series, this is only a fiction following the story of a squad of ODSTs. If want of you are reading this and have already read chapter 3.5, I'd like to explain some things, 3.5 is told from an on deck perspective showing the confusion and general disarray that comes from a commander's perspective as they're receiving feeds and requests from their troops. As this sorry comes and goes from my mind to the screen I will continue to ask for your thoughts questions and opinions. Thank you for your time, let's finish this fight.

I watched my HUD flicker as the dust from the rounds that impacted from the fire mission began to settle, attempting to call out to my squad again, "Who survived?" I waited a moment, just waiting for a voice, still hearing pot shots coming from my right. I called out again, "Anyone? Respond." I said before I heard static come through. I cussed to myself, pushing myself to a knee, eyeing my surroundings, looking through the falling dust and smoke spotting a flickering light that was our soundless call to rally up. I pulled Cole's body to the beacon, spotting my squad assembling, two of them had cracks in their helmet's visor, none looked like they had the spider webbing I had.

One of them called out on the speaker, "Purdue, your visor is fucked." I recognized the voice as Patt's, I shook my head and Patt gave his sigh, "No fucking luck."

I gave a nod, "Call up Mac, have her relay what's going on to Gunney." He gave a nod and started doing so, I looked to everyone else and said, "no blood or broken bones?"

One held up their arm and said, "got hit by something, my arm's bleeding pretty good." Smith said before cradling her arm once more. I cussed to myself before pulling off my pack.

I turned to Patt, "One more wounded." I said before getting to work, pulling her gauntlet from the uniform before cutting the fabric off her uniform and wrapping a tourniquet at the height of her forearm, about two inches below the crease of the elbow. The others providing security as I worked, odd shots popping off every few moments. Smith cussed as the alcohol hit the open wound, I wrapped it before taping up the gauze wrap.

Patt tapped my shoulder as I was wrapping the tape, and said, "CASEVAC is five mikes out, we have three clicks to cover before they arrive."

"Lead us out" I said before calling out, "Let's move."

As I spoke the squad came to their feet, and Patt started off, switching with Walker for holding the wounded Yao, Smith and Petreovitch held our six to keep the ones carrying the wounded in the center. Walker held the right flank and Alphabet the left.

Patt lead us at a fast pace, honestly it reminded me of our pt sessions when we were planet side, on rear rotation. But this time it wasn't to break anyone off, this was for survival. I noticed the coppery scent of blood and the smell of spent casings far more powerfully as my helmet lost it's seal from the broken visor. I huffed at the hump we were making, three clicks, fully armed, armored, and already tired from the firefights that we had been working around. We came to the clearing and Patt waved us into a circle. I set Cole down before coming to Patt, he looked to me and gave me a nod. I pulled out the smoke canister and shown him, before popping the pin and lobbing it.

I heard the bird before I saw it, the familiar sound of a pelican and as well the wash from it's propulsion system hit us, I held my hand to my face to block the blast of air from possibly blowing the shards of the visor into my face. The bird set down and I waved my two runners to take the wounded to the bird. As I did, two Spartans that I'd not seen yet came off the bird, both tasking position at the flanks of the bird. Smith sat herself at the edge of the pelican's troop bay, watching us, wishing she could stay down, But with bleeding as bad as she had, it was almost impossible.

The bird began to lift off as the Spartans jumped back on, no sign of the help we were supposed to receive. The crew chief began firing his chain gun at the combatants he could now see.

"Purdue, Gunney says we have a new objective, he punched it in on the squad waypoint, Mac's team is about to be dropped in HALO along our route."

I gave a nod, "Patt, you're on point, Vitch, you're on our ass, Walker, left flank, Alphabet, you're on our right." The team moved around to set up properly, "alright lets get it since it seems our orbital command have their heads up their asses. Patt, how far?"

"Eight Kilometers, our RV is one kilo in the same direction. ETA for their drop is five mikes" Patt said, "meet them there?"

"You know it. We are officially green boys, move quick and quiet, I don't want contact unless we have no other choice."

They nodded and Patt gave his nod before turning around and starting us off on getting to our rendezvous point with the remaining members of our platoon, moving us at a brisk glide, keeping his gun and eyes up so that we wouldn't be running in on anything blind. I followed in the middle to keep an eye on all my boys. While we ran I let my mind wander, letting the day I got my two replacements on my fireteam, Smith and Alphabet.

I remembered all the bull shit that the two put up and what I had to do to break them of their previous ideas and bogus half training and train them up to the positions they were currently in. None of what they did made me think that they were ready for this hell hole. Not the field operations, the urban combat drills, simulated hot landings, or any of the combat training we did, especially since we had the better part of thirty years of Covenant engagement. Nothing could have prepared us for this hard of resistance from human combatants. Especially not ones that were as well, if not better equipped than we were.

"We're coming up on the waypoint for Mac's team." Patt said as we began slowing down.

I saw the silhouette of a pelican as I heard opening bursts of machine gun fire and the pop of small arms fire, "Make a perimeter, we are going to link up with second fireteam and get our objective taken. Lets get off this rock as fast as possible." I heard grunts of agreement as they followed my directions. I moved to a point I could watch for Mac's team to drop to the surface.

Moments later I saw the blossom of four chutes come from the sky, slowly falling into our circle, as the four brokenly hit the ground, falling to their sides as they hit the ground and quickly freed themselves from their chutes, "Purdue, I've got a control unit for you." Mac called out as she cut the paracord. "Left door of the hard pack." She said as I came up to her.

"Got it, any news from upstairs?" I asked before pulling my helmet from my head.

"Only news is no news, they had us drop with a resupply of ammo and water." She said as I fit the control piece in place of my now destroyed piece and set it back on my head. The visor lit up with the boot up procedure, the cracks distorting the display, but manageable for the time being.

"Resupply, and complete the mission then?" I asked

She gave a nod and tossed me a resupply pack, containing three mags for both my weapons. "The UEC are built up closer to the objective, I could see that from the air, they have triple-A guns and some armor. Good news, we were able to rearm before coming down and have weapons to deal with it, bad news, we are alone until further notice, the ships are taking harassing fire from fighters and can't give us any support until they clear the air."

"nine with no support against an unknown, entrenched and well supported enemy. Great, looks like stealth is our best option." I replied. "How bad did it look while you were dropping?"

"If I had a choice, and the option, I'd throw a MAC round at it before hitting it directly and blow the package before high tailing it out." She said, looking towards the two thirds of the squad we had present. "But I'd do it with a platoon or company, not a squad." She said shaking her head.

I gave a nod, "alright, let's get this done." I said before opening the communications channel, "We are still green, we have 7k to cover, and we have an objective to complete, lets not let our squadmates' sacrifices go for nothing."

The two fireteams meshed into their own groups, Walker and Vitch taking a moment more since they didn't know our fire team as well as my two did. Mac looked at me and said, "Keep in touch, we will link back up about a half k from the objective."

I gave a nod, "Break some spirits." I replied and she gave me a nod in confirmation.

Her team pulled out and off while I pulled my team for it, planning the path in my head as we began to move to the objective. I checked my HUD and made sure everything worked, at least everything comm and navigation wise, I had a round count on my rifle, and knew what else I held. "Patt, continue three clicks, veer twenty degrees north, we are going to go straight for the objective to do a recon, then peel back to link up with the rest of the squad." I said while he took a drink of water from the bottle he was given with his helmet tilted to the rear exposing his face.

He gave a nod and finished his water dropping his helmet back in place, "Ready for a hot shower, and a nap after this." I gave a nod, I understood what he was saying, the small comforts were all we could look forward to sometimes. He began walking at the brisk pace we made for combat patrols, holding the wedge formation.

I watched my team and listened to what they had to say for updates, most of it just quiet banter pointing out glass that appeared similar to shapes or animals. I watched before I saw Patt drop to his knee, saying quietly, "Movement, almost directly ahead of us."

I watched the rest of the team go to a kneel before I started coming up in a crouch, "where is it going?" I asked as I touched his shoulder.

"They're headed our way diagonally towards us, they'll hit our three o'clock in about a minute if they keep their pace up."

"Everyone get into some cover, we have contacts coming up on our twelve, heading to three." I said as I came behind a glassed bit of tree root, concealment, not necessarily cover, but just as good if we didn't get in an engagement with them. I saw the rest begin to take cover behind the trees, glass formations and craters that pit marked the woods we were in, half growing, half dead, and almost half covered in broken up glass. I waited, before long hearing their footsteps as they crunched through the woods, the occasional snap of a twig, and the low chatter coming in bits and pieces, not fully able to hear what they were saying.

"Five contacts, mix matched UNSC gear, three MAs, one Mark, and one SAW." Patt stated as they came closer. The MA was the standard MA series assault rifle, about as common as they come, and given the name due to it being easier to say than give a full name for it. The Mark was our short name for a Marksman rifle or battle rifle, depending on the person holding it. The SAW is somewhat self explanatory, it's a squad automatic weapon designed to enhance the fire power of a squad or fireteam.

To me what it said was that not only were these guys well equipped, but they were organized, making it that much more difficult given our situation. "Hold fire until I give the go ahead." I said keeping an eye on their movement, watching and waiting for them to come closer to my guys, waiting for the worst, for them to shout out and open up fire on my team from point blank, and hoping for the best case scenario where they don't see us and we all go about our own business.

I heard the crunching stop and a couple start talking, "What did you hear?"

"About our enemies?" I heard the change in voice and then the guy give a grunt, "Two augmented teams of ODSTs, and a team of Spartans, they have orbital support, but our tin cans are going after them. Its our best chance to take out all three teams right now." He said as I began to smell cigarette smoke. 'Ten minutes for these guys to be done' I thought to myself as I kept myself still, waiting for them to start speaking again, "Anyone you know?"

"Ha, the unit insignia seemed different from the unit I was with, heard about them though, they were a shock battalion usually getting put with motorized units, last I saw them was Voi, they were our eyes for the counter assault." The one said, 'ExUNSC, this makes some sense.' He exhaled hard then said, "Never knew that I'd be facing them as a recovery unit." I heard him say.

"No shit, I heard of that unit, the fuckin… what the hell were they," The first guy said before stopping, "oh hell, the last I heard while I was in Voi is that their assault convoy of trucks got ambushed and that they were pinned hard." He said. "Could have guessed since they were a mix matched unit of ODSTs that they'd come out after that beacon. Hell, our boss might know them."

Their boss might know my guys? What the fuck? What were they? Contractors? Rebels? Deserters? I didn't know, I looked to my guys and made sure everyone was good. One looked to me, it looked like Alphabet by his coloration, I put my finger to my face mask and began to roll my head to peak over the crest I was hiding behind. I saw the two smokers and the rest of their patrol, they looked like mercs, but hell, most of the insurrectionists that had gear ended up looking like mercenaries, with chest rigs, civilian clothes or utilities, and boots as well some form of head gear, usually being UNSC gear or some random hat of some sort.

"Well, if we catch one of the ODST, maybe you can ask them if they were in Voi, and we can thank em before we throw them in the camp." He said before I began hearing the crunch again. "Pick up your butts, leave nothing behind, we know the land, they don't, we will find them." The guy said before everyone started moving. I settled back down and held my rifle in place as I waited for them to go away.

"They're headed to our nine, just give it a minute and we will be clear." I heard him say then I heard a scrape and a rapid pull back, 'Mother fucker, not now!' I said to myself as I heard them begin whispering. "They turned our way."

"Wait till I give the signal, I don't want them calling us in." I said as I closed my eyes listening.

"Twenty meters…" Patt said and I saw them fan out on my motion tracker, their movements barely coming up due to how slow they were.

"Base, patrol five, we're at our rest point, five mikes before next check in." I heard their radio operator say. As I heard the crunching follow the motion tracker, the glass giving them away as it crunched like gravel and sand.

"Fifteen meters…" Patt said as I saw him shift slightly to align himself to the line of troops. "SAW setting up in the front."

"Hold, Patt, line up on the SAW, once he takes out the gunner, everyone else take their targets quickly." Patt moved slightly lining up as I finished my statement.

"Got him, waiting on your call." Patt said. I pulled out a flashbang, pulling the pin as I held the spoon, "first one is twelve meters, ten meter lob is best on your seven."

I rolled coming to a knee as I threw the flash bang and fell back. I heard them begin to open up before I heard the bang and through my ringing ears I heard a crescendo of silenced fire come from my team, answered by a couple more unsuppresed rounds of fire. I came back up in a sitting position leveling my rifle as I pushed myself to a knee, spotting a couple of them moving around groaning in pain. I stood and watched as a couple of them kept moving.

"Everyone still in one piece? Sound off if you're hit." I said, hearing no reply, "Rally on me, I'm going to see what info I can get off these guys." I said as I began moving to the five. I stopped at one, rolling him to his back as I heard him groan, I put my battle rifle level to him and asked, "Who are you, what numbers do you have?"

"Piss off dog. Run back to your UNSC masters." He said spitting at me, I pressed my barrel into his chest wound, where he grunted.

"I can either kill you and your team or I can give them first aid and be sure you all live. You pick. Where is the recon team, and how many are out there waiting for us?" I said pulling back just slightly with the rifle.

"What do you expect from a grunt? We have a reinforced rifle company on patrols, and other than that, you picked the wrong place to fight us. This is a transient station, we have supplies and troops coming through at all times." He said leaning forward.

"You don't think we can complete our mission?" I asked.

"Most of us are battle of earth vets. A few dozen ODST retirees, and on and on. That's just in my company. We aren't the insurrectionists the UNSC dealt with thirty years ago. We will win our freedom." He said as I heard a metallic click on the ground. I cussed to myself as time came to a near halt in my head as I felt myself rushing backwards to the ground. I fell back as I saw the fireball, an incendiary grenade was what was tossed. I looked up and saw Walker's name tag above my head, he was guarding over me as I was in my daze. I pushed up as my breath came beyond just a ragged squeeze and push through my throat.

"We seriously need to work on your luck." I heard Patt say as he came up, pulling me to my feet. "Today alone, that's three close calls."

"Hey, I'd say my luck is holding, ya'll still have a lead and CLS man." I said as my breathing eased from the adrenaline. "Come on, we have a lot of ground to cover still."

 _Sorry about the long time between updates, I've been having too little time and too much to do, this may seem a bit scatterbrained, and soon, I'll find a way to make this actually worth a read instead of just putting pieces together Anyways, chapter four of Freefall_ _is out and ready to be picked apart._


	6. Chapter 6

_I do not own Halo or any rights to the series, this is only a fiction following the story of a squad of ODSTs_. _In the waining chapters I will do my best to make it as honest and human as possible, though i have no experience in combat or loss in combat, if there are any in the viewers community that have words of advice or want to review, I'm welcome to all criticism, and suggestions, thank you all for your suppoer. Lets finish this fight._

About an hour had passed since we came up to the waypoint. I left three of my guys to watch the rendezvous point for my team and Mac's. Patt was there and I brought Walker with me on the recon. I knelt on one of our short breaks, watching on the overlook for anything while he took in some water and nibbled on one of the MRE snacks he had. "What are we looking for Corporal?" he asked between bites.

"Right now, troop locations, security measures, equipment and the likes. As soon as we have an idea of all that we are going back and giving a brief to the rest of the squad, and going for the objective." I said pulling my helmet from my head to look through my range finder. It was linked up with my HUD, so it would feed into that, but having a nearly shattered visor made it difficult to be able to see out of the range finder while scanning.

"Anything yet?" He asked before pulling his helmet on. I shook my head and continued to look, watching for movement and any give away of positions. I put the range finder back in my bag then pulled my helmet on indicating that our break was over and it was time to go.

He gave a nod and I hopped down the ledge staggering from the hard impact to my knees before leveling my rifle and stepping forward, giving walker space to come forward. "Lets move. Keep an eye out for traps and tunnels. The bit of a map I was able to pull from the first guy was showing they had defensive lines as far as a half kilometer from their main outpost." He gave a nod and we kept moving as quietly as the terrain would allow.

Another couple hundred meters and I gave him the signal to halt, freshly dug soil, and it looked like it had a line to it. I knelt down and looked at the ground as I assessed it, before pulling my knife. I edged my knife into the crack while I watched the ground for anything, an inch, inch and a half, and slowly, I pushed it to the guard before I began lightly prying, seeing the ground lift slightly as my knife pushed it up. I let the cover back down by straightening the knife, then pulled it. "Mark this spot, manhole." I said as I reholstered my knife. He nodded before he stuck a IR strobe by a rock directly beside it.

"Alright, we are starting to find their defenses. Keep your eyes up." I said wrapping my sling with my forearm to give a steadier point of grip with the weapon, keeping the stock below my shoulder to keep the strain of holding it as I did from affecting me too much.

"Corporal, how many times have you been on a mission like this?" Walker asked.

"Recovery mission, or what Walker?" I asked keeping my eyes scanning for anything that would alert the insurrectionists to our movements.

"A mission where the intel was this bad and the enemy was this much of a pain in the ass." Walker replied.

"One, Voi. We were out gunned and acting as a diversion for an evacuation effort." I replied, "our intel was shit, and our support was nonexistent." I said as I came to a sort of tree line, on the other side was a communications building, the antenna coming off the building, security wire and trucks with comm equipment being a dead giveaway. Several dozen meters further in was a set up similar to a FOB during our field ops while in the rear, fences, backed by large scale sandbag walls, with a small gun bunker at the top near the entrances. The position itself was too small to be the main base of operation, but still in our way. I dropped to a knee and pulled my helmet off and began looking through the range finder again, trying to get a feel of the dimensions, and where our best bet for entry would be. Once I got a good enough look, I replaced the range finder, pulling my helmet back on.

"What's the time on deck?" I asked before scanning with my eyes for the next course of action.

"twenty oh four." He said, "Sunset's going to be here before too long."

I gave a nod, "We have enough time to scout out directly ahead of our rendezvous point." I said before moving low back into thicker brush.

Walker moved a few meters behind me, keeping pace while keeping the likelihood of the both of us being spotted to a minimum. I continued to scan with my eyes and rifle to be sure our path was clear. I paused as I saw movement, giving Walker the signal to stop and get down as I did the same, the patrol came up from my three, moving slowly as they scanned for us on their return to base. I could make out the uniform of the one closest to me as he moved along his patrol. I eased my breathing, slowing it down to minimize the amount of movement I made as I waited for them to pass. The one closest to me continued past me, and I stayed still, watching for the rest of their team to pass us by. Once they did, I came to a kneel, watching them before saying, "Walker, move." I said while eyeing the patrol through my sights. I felt his hand tap my shoulder as he moved past me, waiting as I saw the patrol move from my sight.

"I'm set." He said as I turned, rolling into a low trot to get back with Walker.

"On me." I said as I passed him, keeping the pace up as we moved. Once we came to what I deemed a safe distance, I straightened and eased up on the pace. I stopped as my waypoint came to a direct intersection to our location, "we are doing a quick stop before meeting back up with the rest of the team, get some water in you, its going to be a long night." I said pulling off my helmet. He gave a nod and did the same, starting to drink from the bottle in his cargo pocket.

"What's the current plan?"

"You'll know it when Mac and I share our information." I said taking a sip from the water I had in my auxiliary hydration pouch. " Right now, just focus on keeping alert" I said keeping the mouth piece to my lip, then took another sip before releasing the piece and taking a deep breath. I gave my internal timer a count as I watched our front, with Walker doing the same, overlapping the search. I pulled my helmet back on to keep my hand ready as he continued to sip on water.

Walker gave a sigh putting his water away before pulling his helmet back on. I began heading back to our rendezvous point. "Patt, check fire, two friendlies coming in from the west." I said calling over the radio to him.

"I hear you, if its more or less than two we're shooting." He said in response.

I moved with Walker on point, keeping my eyes on our six every chance I could, being sure we were clear of tails and threats. After a few minutes of walking, we came to our fireteam, "Anything useful, cocksucker?" I heard Mac say.

"about a Kilometer up to our Northwest is a comms station with regular patrols, as well a couple manholes. We didn't hit the main FOB due to time and frequency of patrols." I said pulling my helmet off.

"At least you were able to get that bit of info, we found the airstrip, as well a transport yard with two frigates, a destroyer and cruiser, the cruiser was in repairs, while the destroyer was mothballed. The frigates were being loaded up. They had a few fighters, two of which being bombers, looked like longswords, and a flight of broadswords." Mac said as I fished out my pack of cigarettes and lighter. I pulled my helmet off and set it on the dirt before setting a cigarette to my lip and lighting it.

"Alright." I pulled out my knife and started drawing out what she said using symbols, then drew out the comms station, using symbols for its defenses. "So we have two structures IDed. And don't have shit on our actual objective." I said pulling the cigarette with my robotic fingers from my lip, flicking it to drop the ashes before replacing it to my lip.

"Perhaps we can help with that" I heard another voice say, Mac and I both faced the newcomer, her pointing her firearm at the voice and with myself drawing my pistol. I saw a flicker before the Spartans from earlier appeared one at a time. "Easy troopers."

I gave a sigh as I holstered my pistol and Mac dropped her rifle to holding it normally. "Well, what have you got for the table?" Mac asked.

"I should be asking you that Corporal." The Spartan at the front said as they came closer.

"This is show and tell Spartan, unless you got something for it, we aren't interested in the formalities." I replied.

"Watch your tone" One of the others said before the fireteam leader shook his head.

"Look, we're on the same side, may as well enlighten them." He said before kneeling where my drawing in the dirt was. "There's a large complex, looks like an old UNSC supply and logistics center. That being said, the complex is beaten, though in repair." He said adding to the drawing. "Its about a click west and south of the airfield. That is where the package is being held. Only problem, these guys hired some top notch mercs. I'm waiting on a personnel file, but they're using SPI armor, and are trained to use it. We spotted two heavy weapons users before taking sniper fire from an unknown location." He said before looking between myself and Mac. I gave a nod, then flicked the ash off my cigarette.

"So we have an unknown number of mercenaries who are better equipped than two fireteams of ODSTs and were able to fend off a team of Spartans. What the hell is SPI anyway?" I asked.

"Semi-Powered Infiltration armor. Mass produced for the Spartan three companies, more resilient than your battle armor, active camouflage, and depending on what version, possibly shield technology and VISR capabilities." He said.

"So basically, you're asking us to take on slower Spartans basically." I responded before shaking my head, "Mac?"

"We're down by three in numbers right now, two fireteams plus one individual." Mac said crossing her arms, "plus we don't have the equipment to take on something like that."

"We aren't asking you to take on the mercenaries. I'm giving you a heads up on what equipment they have. All my team needs is a diversion to be able to go and take the objective, their armory is in their main complex, on the files I received for your teams, I've come up with a plan to best utilize you, and be able to minimize casualties. That's what your main objective is, correct? Take the objective with the majority of your people intact, correct?" I gave a nod then he continued, "Good, so that we have less confusion, we are going to draw it out, the five man team is going to pull assault. That being said, drop main gear so that you can move up with my team. The four man team is going to pull support, my two specialists are going to swap weapons with someone that knows how to use them. Mark, Davis, come up." He said looking to his team.

"Wait a sec, so you're pulling Chicken's team to assault the complex, my team to support, and ya'll are going to assault the main objective, how do we know that we are going to have enough support and ammo to keep our boys alive while ya'll are grabbing the recovery team?" Mac asked, "These are all my boys, I came from class with Purdue and I've trained the rest to this point."

He gave a nod, "What loadout are you all carrying?"

"Mostly HBRs, one with a DMR and the last with a MA. My Ordinance guy has a grenade launcher with him, but everyone else has a regular assault load. My Autorifle was WIA and had to send them off." I said.

"One MA, two HBRs and a SAW." Mac replied.

"Alright, for simplicity sake, both of your teams are working in tandem to draw fire off the other." He said drawing two lines, "My team will work on the objective."

"What about your Mercs?" I asked, "I doubt we have enough firepower to take on the main facility, let alone whatever backup they bring."

"My team is going to smash and grab, if we don't give a signal within five minutes of entering the facility, get to it, and find a nice place to huddle down while we work." He replied

"we all know they have artillery, heavy weapons and the likes, once we get close we are trapped." Mac said, "That is unless we hit hard and fast enough. Purdue, before the main assault, we take our teams, place some charges or whatever we have on the comms station, and the airfield, when we are ready, set them off, and take the main facility."

I was running the options through my head, "They only work under darkness, and they're patrolling heavily, are the mercs staying close to the main compound?"

"The heavies are, but I don't know about the snipers." He replied. "Apart from that, I noticed a couple with rifleman equipment, how many there actually are is the issue, we don't know."

"So we are looking at, at least a company element guarding the main facility, maybe even a battalion, and probably a company or better guarding the auxiliary points. Mac, if we do your idea, we have to stay out of direct action, otherwise we're all dead." I stated as I finished my cigarette, scrapping it out before placing the butt in my cargo pocket. "I can't be two places at once, and this is going to be hell if we are found."

Mac gave a nod and said, "Best bet is to do it a couple hours before dawn. Lets set up a watch and let our boys sleep."

I responded with a nod and stood, "Oh three?" She gave a nod and I went back to the group of our juniors, "Alright, we have a break, we are getting up and gearing up at zero three, we are doing a watch for an hour and a half each, that being said, Mac is going first with Lopez. Walker, Patt, you two are on after them, Alphabet, you're with Petreovich, Rouse, you're with Mario, and I'm taking last watch. Any questions?" I waited a moment, "Good, start your rotations."


End file.
